Various wheel cover retention systems are known for retaining a wheel cover to the wheel of the vehicle. Center-mount type retention systems carried by the wheel cover are engageable with the lug nuts of the wheel as a means to secure the cover to the wheel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,780 discloses a conventional center-mount system in which a plurality of decorative mounting cap members are loosely captured on the wheel cover such that they may be threaded onto special externally threaded lug nuts of the wheel. The cap members are separately formed and of fairly complex shape adding cost and complexity to the manufacture of the wheel cover assembly. Such cap members are prone to loosening over time and may rattle during operation of the vehicle. Further, the cap members do not prevent unauthorized removal of the wheel covers. All that is required to remove the wheel cover is the unthreading of the cap members. Apart from the wheel cover itself, the externally threaded lug nuts are more costly to manufacture than conventional lug nuts.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,842,339 and 5,163,739 disclose center-mount retention systems which lock the wheel cover securely into engagement with the lug nuts of a vehicle wheel. Thus, in order to steal a wheel cover, the lug nuts must be removed; while such lug nut removal is an inconvenience, it does not constitute an anti-theft safeguard. Moreover, the cover members of the aforementioned '339 and '739 patents have no cap portions and as such the lug nuts of the wheels project into open wells of the cover members and are visible from outside the wheel covers, detracting from the aesthetic quality of the wheel covers.
A wheel cover assembly formed in accordance with the present invention overcomes the foregoing objections by providing an anti-theft configuration that provides for wheel cover removal only by use of an anti-theft system including a wheel cover release tool.